Embracing Darkness
by JadeRavyn86
Summary: K.C.'s new in town. Carlisle warns Edward away from her, but won't say why. She seems normal, but her family is hiding a dark secret. What's moved to Forks now? Will Edward find out, or die trying? Pls R&R, I wanna know if it needs changes or not. THANKS
1. PREFACE

_"You won't get away with this," I shouted for about the hundredth time. I knew it wasn't true considering I had been locked in this empty room for what was probably about a week now, but it made me feel better anyways. Not that I knew for sure how long I'd been here since there were no windows or clocks to give me any sense of time._

_I had no idea why I was even here considering whoever had brought me here never came to see me or speak to me at all. The only contact I had with anyone other than myself was when I was fed. It was then that I would see a slender pale hand slide a tray of food under the cat door._

_A few hours later I finally had some sense of time. I knew it was night time and that this monster had kept me for exactlay eight days. The tingling sensation in my body told me all of this basd on one simple fact. It was a full moon out tonight._

_I was finally going to be free from this prison once and for all, and then I was going to hunt..._


	2. CHAPTER 1

I walked into my new room and flopped on my bed with a sigh of despair. At least I didn't have to help set up the furniture. Mom and Dad had decided that my brothers and I should stay home until got all the furniture arranged. I guess I should be thankful for small favors, but it was kinda hard considering everything that they had done to me.

Groaning I sat up as my older brother Nicolas Crowley nudged my door open with his foot. He stood in my doorway with a box in his arms. "K.C., Mom said to tell you to get your junk outta the car. She needs to go to the grocery store before they close."

I grudgingly stood up and said, "Whatever. She wouldn't have to worry bout the store closing if we had stayed in Cali."

Nick shook his head and said, "I know. I miss home too, but its not like we had a choice. After what happened there its better that we move to a small town. You know, someplace that's well wooded..."

"Ugh, it is so not fair! I'm being punished for something I haven't even done yet, and probably never will! At least you get to go back to college tomorrow! I'm stuck here for the next two years!"

"You know what, since its still raining out I'll bring up the last of your stuff for you. You've only got those two boxes right?"

"Yeah, Thanks Nicky. I wish you didn't have to go. This place is bad enough as it is. It'll be Hell without you."

"I'm gonna miss you too Kerrie. Don't be too hard on Damien while I'm gone. He's beaten himself up enough over what happened as it is." With that he shut my door behind him as he left to finish cleaning out our mom's black Saturn VUE Hybrid.

_I can't believe I actually have to live in this rainy boring town in the middle of nowhere,_I thought as I began unpacking my belongings. I had just gotten all my clothes and electronics where I wanted them when there was a knock on my door. "Come in," I called knowing from the light tapping that it was my younger brother Damien. He opened the door, but only took a couple of steps into the room as if afraid to be any closer to me without anyone else around. I couldn't really say that I blamed him though after the way I'd been treating him lately. I still wanted to rip him a new one and would have too if the look on his face hadn't been so desolate. It was then that I realized just how bad he felt about the incident that had occurred back in San Francisco. Sitting down on my bed I patted the spot next to me and said, "Have a seat Lil' Bro." Tentatively he did as I said. As I watched him slink over in shame I noticed just how different he was from Nicolas and I, and not just in appearance. Our whole family was tall, but where Damien had the stocky build of a football player Nick and I both had the slim muscles of runners. Physically, Nick and I took after our mom Luciana with our dark features, but we have our father Robert's personality. Damien, on the other hand is just the opposite. We all have the same skin tone, a striking creamy caramel color, but Luciana, Nicolas and I have black curly hair and black eyes whereas Robert and Damien have straight dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

It's our personalities, though, that really seperate us. Damien is admittedly outgoing than either Nicolas or I, but only because we got our father's patience. Instead of blurting out whatever pops into our heads we tend to analyze what's in our heads and hearts before speaking. In the end our hearts usually win out. Damien is more stubborn and tends to believe that his first thought is always right. Unfortunately that's what has caused us to end up in this God forsaken town of Forks, Washington, and why Damien is now sitting on my bed looking like he just lost his best friend.

"K.C., I'm sorry about everything," he said softly, looking at his hands folded in his lap. I don't know what came over me. You and Nick made it seem so easy, but it wasn't."

"I know, and I'm sorry Dame. I should've known you were struggling and helped you through it. It was my job to be there for you and I failed, but we won't let that happen again now will we?"

Damien looked up at me with tears in his eyes and asked hopefully, "We won't?"

"No way Lil' Bro," I said hugging him to my side, "I'm gonna be there with you from now on. Now get outta my room before I kick your butt all the way back to Cali."

As soon as Damien left Nick walked in carrying my last two boxes and set them on my desk. "I heard what you said to him."

"Yeah, I know, I'm such a sap. He just looked so pitiful. Thanks for grabbin these for me."

"No problem _KerrBear. _Mom wants me to go grab pizza for tonight while she's at the store. Wanna come with?"

"Sure," I said as I stood up and stretched, "Just let me grab my jacket."

"Oh, by the way," Nick said in a suspiciously conversational tone, " I decided to let you have my car while I'm gone, and if you take good enough care of her I might just let you keep her and get myself a new one."

I nodded and grabbed my black leather jacket. After getting my right arm in it's sleeve I stopped and looked up at Nick who had a huge grin on his face and a matching grin broke out on mine. "Oh my God," I shouted throwing myself at him and hugging him as tightly as I could, "Thank you! You are the most awesome bid brother in the whole world!"

As soon as we got outside I squeaked in terror and threw my hands over my head. I'll be the first to admit that it was a girly move on my part, but I hated dealing with post-rain hair. I pulled my jacket as high as I could and dashed for Nick's, soon to be my, dark silver 1970 Ford Mustand Shelby GT. That was the last time Nick and I got to hang out before he left. _There goes any chance at this place even being tolerable,_ I thought to myself the next day as we watched Nick board his plane for North Carolina.

Three days later I was walking in the woods behind our house when I heard Damien call my name from deeper in. I ran as fast as I could praying that I would get to him in time. What I saw when I reached him stopped me in my tracks. standing over my brother's naked and bloody body was the most terrifyingly beautiful boy I had ever seen. I knew then and there that I would either marry or kill him. There could be no other way.


	3. CHAPTER 2

I walked slowly towards my brother, the stranger eyeing me suspiciously the whole time. Here he was on our property and yet I felt like we were the ones in the wrong. I expected someone to say something, anything, but nobody would, or could for that matter. Finally the silent suspicions and accusations hanging in the air became too much for me. "Step away from my brother," I demanded to the strange boy who wa just staring at me with his piercing brown eyes. "I don't know who you are," I threatened, "but if you've hurt my brother in any way I won't hestistate to kill you with my own two hands." With that off my chest I held out my hand to Damien and helped him to his feet.

"Look," the stranger said in a soft alluring voice, "I didn't touch the boy, okay? I live up the hill with the rest of my family. I was just trying to get some fresh air when I heard the kid yell. I just wanted to help that's all."

I had pushed Damien behind me during the stranger's speech, and now turned to him. I didn't even have to ask him for verification becaused the embarassed look in his eyes said everything. Still he looked me square in the eye, straightened his broad shoulders, and said, "I don't know why he was out here, but he did show up after I yelled not before."

I smiled at how strong he was and said, "OK Dame, now go home and get some clothes on. You probably scarred the poor guy to death at the sight. We'll talk about what happened when I get there. Oh, and just so you know, you get to explain to Mom and Dad why you didn't stay inside like you were supposed to."

"But Kerrie..." he whined. He looked so pitifull I almost agreed to take the blame for him. Instead I just gave him a quick hug and ruffled his hair before gently pushing him in the direction of our house.

"No buts Dame, and don't think you can take your time either. I'm gonna be right behind you as soon as I finish talking to our new neighbor."

"Okay, but please hurry up. I don't wanna be alone for too long," he whispered to me reminding me of why I was so overprotective of him. He may be fourteen, but sometimes he still had moments where I could see the little boy that I had grown up with.

"I won't be long I promise, "I said softly smiling reasurringly at him. He nodded and headed back home. Almost as soon as he hit the tree line he vanished from sight. When I knew for sure that he was on his way home I turned to my latest problem and said cautiously, "So, I guess owe you an apology and a thank you..."

"Not really," he said in that musical voice of his, "If I hadn't been here you still would've reached him in time. I only got here right before you did." As he spoke a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds overhead for a split second and caused his deathly pale skin to appear as if it were glowing with an inner light. "By the way, I'm Edward Cullen. My family and I live right down the way from here. I guess that makes us neighbors."

"I guess so Edward. I'm Kerrie, Kerrie Crowley. I was wondering if you saw anything that might help me figure out what happened without making Damien rehash it. Damien's the baby of the family, and if anything were to happen well... Its something I'd just rather not imagine."

"Not really. The only thing I noticed was that his clothes were ripped to shreds a couple of feet away in those bushes over there. Other than that I didn't see anything."

I looked to were he was pointing and saw that he was telling the truth. "Thanks again," I said as I turned to head home.

"No problem Kerrie I'll be seeing you around," he said in a low voice almost as if it were a threat and a promise all rolled into one.

Up until that point I had been playin it cool, as if he didn't completely unnerve me, but I couldn't hold myself together anymore. Grabbing Damien's torn clothes I ran home through the woods as fast I possibly could. The whole way home I could hear his lyrical voice laughing behind me as if he were following me on the wind. There was something about Edward Cullen that shook me to my very core. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but I was determined to figure it out. Once I did I would make him mine in one way or another.

When we told our parents everything that had happened that day after dinner, with Damien filling in the blanks I hadn't been around for, our dad frowned thoughtfully. Finally he asked me, "This Edward boy, what did you say he looked like?"

"I don't know about six feet or so maybe, with dark brown eyes, light brown hair, and really pale skin."

"Did he, um, smell normal?"

I furrowed my brow in thought before I answered honestly. "Not really," I said in confusion, "he didn't have much of a smell at all now that I think about it."

My dad looked scared and said, "I want you to stay away from that boy as much as possible KerrBear. He could be very dangerous. Him and his family. I think they might be the Cold ONes my grandfather was always talking about."

At that I finally laughed. "You mean you think those stories Uncle Billy's always tellin us bout vampires that can walk in the daylight are true? You're losin your mind just like him Dad. Everyone knows that Vampires are purely nocturnal creatures." I laughed as I headed upstairs to my room. _If that's tru K.C. then why didn't he have any scent, _I thought to myself once I was alone behind my closed door, _Even we have some kind of scent. Every living creature has a scent. _Even with questions about his mortality going unanswered all I could think about was his parting statement. _I'll be seeing you around._ As I replayed those simple words in my mind over and over again a shiver of anticipation ripped through my bady at the same time that a gust of rainy wind slammed open my windows. I could swear I felt someone watching me but as soon as I leaned out the window to check the feeling disappeared. Brushing it off as my imagination I stripped from my velour sweats and stood staring at myself in my mirror. Standing there in my black lacy bra and matching boycut thong I knew I was physically attractive, but still I never quite fit in at any of my schools. I couldn't help but hope that here in this small podunk town things might just be different for me. I should have known better. As my mom was always telling me... _Be carefull what you wish for. You just might get it._


End file.
